Page 31 of Sporty Girls Don't Fall For Loners

Ally and Zack went out on a date and Zoey’s studying for her math test. It’ll be just the two of us for a few hours.

The Hastings’ house isn’t far from the park and I get there in less than fifteen minutes. After pushing the door open, I freeze when I hear laughing, cheering, and shouts. I guess Zoey has friends over. Heading toward the living room, I stop again when I take in a few guys from school. The football team. The furniture has been pushed out of the way and they’re all surrounding something or someone on the floor in the middle of the room.

A voice yells.

What the…?

I hurry over and see Isaiah on top of another person while everyone else continues to cheer and laugh. I can’t make out who’s underneath him, but then I see sandy brown hair.

Zoey.

Jetting forward, I grab him by the back of his shirt and haul him to the side. “Get off her!”

He crashes to the floor with a loud thud. Everyone stops cheering and stares at me. Zoey blinks up at me like she has no idea where I came from.

She scrambles to her feet. “What the heck are you doing?” she demands. “Why did you shove him?”

Isaiah sits up, rubbing the back of his head.

“He was on top of you,” I say. “And no one stopped him. They were just cheering. And you yelled.”

She gives me an exasperated look as she crosses her arms over her chest. “We were wrestling! He wasn’t hurting me. And it was a friendly yell.”

I glance from her, to everyone else in the room, then back to her. “Wrestling?”

“Yeah. The guys came over to watch the game and we decided to wrestle for fun. We do it all the time.”

“I…didn’t know.”

She turns to her teammate and helps him off the floor. “You okay, Isaiah?”

He nods. “Totally had you.”

She snickers. “Please. I let you win.”

He scoffs.

“Sorry, man,” I say to Isaiah as I pass him on my way to the kitchen.

He waves his hand. “It’s cool.”

I enter the kitchen, grab a bottle of water from the fridge, and down half of it. As I lean against the counter, I can hear the guys and Zoey continuing to cheer and laugh. I feel bad for pushing the guy, but how was I supposed to know they were just kidding around?

“Guys!” she says after a little while. “I need to get back to studying.”

“Aw, man,” some of them groan.

“So lame, Hastings.”

“I appreciate you coming here, but I really need to concentrate. We’ll hang out another time.”

They’re still grumbling as they leave the house.

“See you guys tomorrow at practice,” Zoey calls after them before shutting the door. A second later, she enters the kitchen.

I feel her eyes on me. When I lift my head, sure enough those brown eyes are pasted on mine. She doesn’t seem upset or ticked off. Actually, I can’t read the expression on her face.

“They finally left,” she says. “As much as I love the guys, they can be a handful sometimes.”

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